WHY THIS MISSION?

We are all remarkably dependent on brick and mortar retail. It’s where we get our broccoli, clothes, steak, toothpaste, and more. Prices in retail are going up. This is because the costs of being a retailer are going up. The prices in retail are a small markup on top of “variable costs” like shrink, the amount of labor needed to stock it, the electricity to keep the food cold, etc. As labor costs, fuel costs, inefficiency in supply chain, shrink, and other variable costs all increase, inflation increases, and your cost of living increases, making it more impossible to make ends meet.

However, we estimate that over half of all that variable cost is inefficiently spent and AI can and will find and eliminate it. If the variable costs go down. The cost of broccoli goes down, which is good for all mankind.

Focal’s AI is built to enable retailers to lower costs, so they can lower prices, and lower the cost of living for the world.

Focal Systems mission is to develop state of the art automation and AI and unleash it to automate and optimize brick and mortar retail in a low cost and scalable way. This will improve working conditions for associates, reduce food waste in the industry, and lower the cost of operations and thereby reduce the cost of living in the world.

This mission may take us a century to complete, but we think the effort is worth it.

If we are not successful, there will be massive consolidation in the market by a small few technology enabled retailers that know how to harness AI, gobbling up those that do not, which would further increase the cost of living and dramatically decrease the quality of life for mankind.

Join us in our mission to use AI to lower the cost of living for us all!